Wednesday, May 13, 2009

MOONG DAL INDIAN CREPES-- MADE ONLY WITH BEANS; NO FLOUR OR GRAIN

The reason I'm excited about these Indian crepes (called adai or pesarattu, a type of dosa/crepe that is made only from dal and is un-fermented) is that they are so great for the WW Core Plan because they are made from beans! (I have lost 11 lbs. so far, BTW, and DH has lost 13! We are not suffering at all on this plan!) If I had used a grain flour, I would have had to use some of my extra points. (I'm not sure the points thing would work if I used soaked, ground whole grain-- anybody know?)

I have made dosa for years, but usually with some grain or flour in them, and usually with some oil in the pan. My experiment was to make them solely with soaked beans and with no more than a light spritz of oil in a nonstick pan. It was a success, and DH and my friend Holly gobbled them up. (For a filling, I used a simple cabbage stir-fry recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of Vegetarian Cooking, with some Tofu "Yogurt". (UPDATE: Whole Soy Unsweetened Plain Soy Yogurt would be a great commercial option, as it is creamy and tangy and not sweet.)

We also remarked that this simple, delicious, nourishing, and filling meal was so inexpensive to make!

This has inspired me to try different kinds of Indian breads and dumplings that can be cooked in a nonstick pan, or steamed, using soaked beans, sprouted beans, bean flours, and even fresh corn. I'll let you know if I have any other successes!

Last night I soaked some moong dal in water:

I used split moong dal, but it still had the skins. Unfortunately, much later, I found my split washed moong dal (which has the skins removed), which would have made a nice white batter. Mine was kind of green! Oh, well-- next time!

Washed moong dal

In the morning it looked like this and I had about 5 1/2 cups of soaked dal!

These crepes are a type of dosa that is made only from dal and is unfermented. These are actually a bit sturdier than the crepes we're used to, but they fold and roll nicely. You can just eat them with chutney or an Indian-style vegetable stir-fry, or with a more elaborate vegetable curry, if you like. They can be eaten for breakfast, as a snack, or for a lunch or supper dish. (They would be great for a gluten-free diet, too.)

1 1/2 cups split moong dal (the washed kind have no skins, so make a nicer-looking batter, but you can use the kind with the skins-- just don't use whole mung beans)
water to generously cover-- they really soak it up!
2 tablespoons (or more, according to taste) of fresh chopped green chilies (seeds removed-- or, cheat, as I did, and use pickled or canned jalapeño peppers)
1 piece (1-inch) fresh ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
water to thin the batter, as necessary (1/2 cup, at least)

The night before you are to make the adai, rinse and drain the dal and then place in a bowl or container with room to almost triple, and cover generously with water. The dal will soak up alot of water, so don't be stingy!

The day you are making the pancakes, make or assemble your filling(s) before starting to cook the dosa.

Drain the water off the soaked dal and place it in a large blender container, along with the chilies, salt and ginger. In a Vita-Mix, you can grind the soaked beans, using the tamper, without extra water, but I don't think you could do this in cheaper blenders. In any case, I ended up adding water to the batter, so you are safe to add 1/2 cup of water to the batter when blending.

Blend the mixture until smooth, stopping and scraping down as necessary. Scoop the mixture into a bowl. Add the cumin seeds.

Now, adjust the thickness of the batter. If it's too thick, it won't spread easily. I kept stirring in water until it spread easily. I didn't measure, unfortunately, but the batter ended up like a regular crepe batter, more or less-- kind of like cream.

Spray a good-quality 8 to 10" nonstick skillet (a good one-- Cooks Illustrated magazine recommended this one, which is inexpensive, and beat out far more expensive competitors in their tests) with oil from a spray pump and heat over high heat. (With a good nonstick pan can cook these without using a spray pump with oil, but it depends on your pan. UPDATE: This is my current favorite. It's not the one in the photo.) When cold water sprinkled on the pan sizzles, scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan with a small ladle and then use the bottom of the ladle to go in circles and spread the batter out from the center. It's easier than you might think! See the "action" pictures below:

PS: if your batter doesn't spread easily, it may be too thick.

I turned the heat down just a notch or two from the "high" setting. Almost as soon as you have the batter spread, it will start looking a bit dry on top.

Carefully turn the adai and cook for a few seconds, then fold in half and lay on a platter with a clean tea towel over the adai.

Repeat until the batter is all used up. These can be refrigerated and reheated.

17 comments:

I am a South Indian and vegan. My mother makes dosas frequently with a mixture of white and red rice (an Indian whole grain rice) and urad dal, but I have also tried pesarattu which is like dosa but made with moong-dal and/or a mixture of other dals. I don't think we've had plain moong dal dosa before though. I'd especially like to try the other additions in your recipe, mixed into the batter as you have done. We usually flavour it afterwards, sprinkling with finely chopped herbs and raw vegetables like onion, peppers, carrot and spinach on top, when it's cooking - a bit like a Spanish omelette. Did the cabbage taste good with the dosa? I have never eaten it before with a vegetable dish (only chutney or pickle), except for masal, a spicy potato filling. Thanks for your posts. I really appreciate them. I made a farinata with onions and herbs a few days ago and it was very good but I forgot to leave a comment.

We liked the cabbage with the dosa. I just made that because it was quick and I had the ingredients. Also, since we are trying to lose weight, I didn't want to use anything with alot of oil, or with peanuts or coconut.

For my kids when they were young (many years ago!) I used to make rice and urad dal dosa with a spicy potato filling and yogurt (pre-vegan days-- we had a cow!). They loved that for breakfast! If you have suggestions for fillings, particularly heavy on the veggies, I would love you to share them!

I am so impressed that those are grain free! I will have to try them. Congrats on the weight loss as well. I think if you can be creative in your cooking Core can absolutely be a positive experience without any feelings of deprivation.

Hi: this is my first visit to your blog, and I am getting a lot of interesting recipes from your site. I second Ka's comment that your 'dosai' is like pesarattu AKA adais (dosai made from a batter of mixed dals only, instead of dal + rice). Unlike dosais, adai/pesarattu batter is not fermented. You can use plain moong dal like you did, or mix moong, masoor, chana, urad (any or all of these) dals. You can 'up' the nutrition by adding finely chopped greens (e.g. fenugreek or spinach or amaranth) to the batter. For a lower fat meal, instead of chutney, you can make tomato or any other chutney, or even sambar.All the best!

I tried making these but they just stuck to the pan and didn't cook through, so then I added a little flour and flax seed meal to the batter to see if i could get it to stick together and still no luck. Any tips? These look really great and I'd love a healthy crepe like that to have with meals!

Gaby, you need a really good, heavy nonstick pan to use no oil. If you don't have one, you'll have to olil the pan more generously, which is actually the more traditional way to cook them. The only other thing I can think of is that you had the heat too high and/or made them a little too thin.

Hi, I just tried making these and they also just stuck to the pan. I used a lot of oil and a non-stick pan. Maybe I used the wrong sort of beans? Would that make a difference? They tasted good but looked nothing like crepes. The batter felt very sticky. Any suggestions? I ended up pouring the batter into a baking pan and baking it in the oven, letting it cool, then slicing it up and frying the pieces.

Anonymous, I really couldn't say, not being able to see what you used. If you look at the photo of the spoon of batter suspended over the pan, you can get some idea of how thick the batter is-- it's not runny.

Also, when you soaked the beans, maybe you didn't use enough water-- I mentioned in the recipe that they soak up water like crazy! You should be able to blend the drained, soaked beans with no more than 1/2 cup water.

Did you use splint moong dal or was it called something else?

I can't think of anything else. You can see from the pictures the method and the thickness of te batter, and Brenda commented above that hers came out just fine.

I have noticed that not all nonstick pans work the same, or work well for everything. What kind do you have?

I used a package which said "yellow split peas". Are they different? Online I found a website which explains: "moong dal Notes: These are mung beans that have been skinned and split, so that they're flat, yellow, and quick-cooking. They're relatively easy to digest. Substitutes: split peas". The pan was a brand new non-stick pan but a cheap one - perhaps I need a better one? I did try our old non-stick just to make sure it wasn't the new pan though. I also tried adding varying amounts of olive oil to the pan. And I added a lot of water while soaking. The batter looked good - although I added quite a bit of water to make it thin enough while puréeing. Up until the point of trying to flip them, they looked just like your pictures. Oh well! Thanks for responding. I will try try them again.

I make my own non-dairy kefir out of sesame milk and date paste and will use it in this recipe rather than non-dairy yoghurt as we can't get a good variety here. Cheers for this excellent recipe Bryanna. I am going to experiment with it post haste :)

Twitter / VeganFeaster

ShareThis

No reproduction of the following material without permission from the author. If you would like to share any of my recipes with others, or on a forum, or another site, let me know, and please credit me, my website and the book the recipe appeared in, if I note that in the recipe. You are welcome to link to this page from your site. Thanks!